Reaction: Start-up incubator River City Labs

Steve Baxter says there are risks posed by changing power dynamics within the Coaltion.

Photo: Supplied

Steve Baxter's company, River City Labs, has encouraged 250 "start-up" businesses since it began in March 2012.

Mr Baxter praised the concept behind the Advance Queensland policy to help innovative businesses through a six to 10 year life-cycle.

"The words are good, I'm waiting for the implementation," he says.

"But they seem to have touched on most points in what I call the 'pipeline' to getting people interested in taking computer sciences in school, then putting them through university - getting them enthusiastic and then getting them into co-worker spaces and incubators."

"Many parts of Queensland are highly exposed to extreme weather, in particular the impacts of cyclones and floods," he says.

"Though today's budget announcement is a positive step, the ICA believes the government must prioritise mitigation and resilience measures this decade if vulnerable communities are to remain prosperous.

"The recent Financial System Inquiry and the Productivity Commission agree with the insurance industry that investment in disaster mitigation and improving community resilience against extreme weather delivers generational benefits to towns and cities.

"This is more efficient and cost-effective than spending hundreds of millions of dollars in recovery and rebuilding after every disaster."

Mr Whelan says the ICA is disappointed taxes on insurance were unchanged.

"The budget papers note that revenue from insurance duty is expected to grow by 5.9 per cent in 2015-16," he says.

"This is more than double the forecasted 2.5 per cent rate of inflation. Queenslanders who chose to insure their assets will continue to carry an unfair burden."

Reaction: The Australian Computer Society

"In particular, we congratulate the Premier on the future schools review and the focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, with coding, computer science and robotics," Dr Tate says.

"In the past three years alone, digital technologies have grown to a 5.1 per cent share of our national GDP – from $50 billion in 2011 to $79 billion in 2013-2014."

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6:36pm on 14 Jul 2015

Reaction: Queensland Farmers' Federation

QFF chief executive Clare Murray says the "no frills" budget is pretty much what they expected.

Among the expenditure is $10 million to combat the immediate challenge of Panama Tropical Race 4, which Ms Murray says is a positive boost to biosecurity.

"Protecting Queensland's global market advantage as a clean, green and bio-secure producer of food and fibre needs to be a key priority of the state government," she says.

"The Labor government's ongoing review into our biosecurity capabilities must be the catalyst for even more government investment, particularly in plant biosecurity."

But otherwise, Ms Murray was largely non-plussed.

"On balance the state's farming sector will be unmoved with the flavour of this Budget – described by the Treasurer as 'vanilla'," she says.

Reaction: Independent Schools Queensland

ISQ executive director David Robertson welcomes the 7.5 per cent increase in recurrent funding for non-state schools, which increased the government's contribution to $628.4 million.

"The level of support from the state government for independent schools significantly assists schools with increasing enrolments and ensuring the delivery of high-quality education," he says.

Mr Robertson says an additional $41.2 million for capital assistance to non-state schools took the total funding to 122.6 million in 2015-16.

6:25pm on 14 Jul 2015

Reaction: United Voice - the ambulance union

Branch secretary Gary Bullock says the almost $40 million that will be added to ambulance services was a "great first step", but more investment is needed.

"Funding boosts that allow for more paramedics in Queensland are welcome, which is why we made them one of the key asks of our Code One campaign," he says.

"This announcement is a great first step and there'll be many communities across the state which will benefit significantly from it.

"Our Code One 10-point plan asked for funding for an additional 600 paramedics across the state over three years and we still firmly believe that's the level of commitment needed to revive the Queensland Ambulance Service and again deliver the service Queenslanders expect.

"We'd hope to see today's announcement built on in future budgets from the Palaszczuk government so that we can continue to build an ambulance service that we can all be proud of."

Reaction: The Queensland Council of Unions

Queensland Council of Unions President John Battams says workers will welcome the Palaszczuk government's first budget.

"The Treasurer has preferred to put government funds to work in order to create jobs, rather than let that money sit in the Queensland Investment Corporation," he says.

"It exposes as a myth the claims of the lazy LNP that the only way forward was to sell profitable public assets.

"The LNP sat on their hands as the jobless rate hit seven per cent and state growth tanked.

"This first Palaszczuk Labor budget delivers a significant $1.2 billion operating surplus but more importantly keeps profitable public assets in public hands, where they can generate future revenue for Queensland as well as pay down some debt.

"Queenslanders voiced their opposition to asset sales at the past two elections.

"It is heartening to see that the government has found a way to address debt concerns as well as the need to fund growth."

Queensland Council of Unions President John Battams will retire from the union in January